Northwestern Fans Are Pessimistic About 2025 College Football Season
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There are many reasons for Northwestern fans to be pessimistic about their team's chances ahead of the 2025 football season. The Wildcats have experienced a winning record just once in the last four years, had several key players leave in the transfer portal and have one of the toughest schedules in the nation.
A poll from The Athletic, titled the "Hope-O-Meter," surveyed fans of all 136 FBS teams about their sentiments going into the fall. The results were overwhelmingly positive, as just 2,211 fans out of 12,415 responses claimed to be pessimistic. The 82.2% optimism rate reflects one of the best parts of college sports — no matter the circumstances, any team can succeed in any given year.
The general optimism did not extend to Northwestern. Just 32% of Wildcats fans expressed an optimistic outlook for 2025, ranking them the eighth-lowest among 68 Power Four teams. Only Kentucky (11%), Mississippi State (16%), Wisconsin (17%), Maryland (20%), Stanford (26%) and Arizona (31%) had a lower percentage of hopeful fans than Northwestern.
The 'Cats went 4-8 (2-7 B1G) in 2024, finishing 16th in the Big Ten amid inconsistency at the quarterback position. Northwestern appears to have found the answer to its problem in SMU graduate transfer Preston Stone, but will his addition be enough to turn the Wildcats' fortune around?
Even with the program-record class of incoming transfers, Northwestern's road ahead may be too much to overcome. In Big Ten play alone, the 'Cats face ranked opponents in No. 2 Penn State (Oct. 11), No. 7 Oregon (Sep. 13), No. 12 Illinois (Nov. 29) and No. 14 Michigan (Nov. 15). Tulane (Aug. 30) and Nebraska (Oct. 25) both received votes in the AP Preseason Poll, while bouts against UCLA (Sep. 27), USC (Nov. 7) and Minnesota (Nov. 22) will challenge Northwestern as well.
Saturday's season-opening match against the Green Wave will likely be very telling of whether Northwestern can return to its winning ways or if the Wildcats are doomed to a repeat of 2024.
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Gavin Dorsey is the Lead Writer for Northwestern Wildcats On SI and covers a handful of other teams in the On SI network. Before joining On SI in February 2025, he wrote for the Star Tribune and Inside NU while broadcasting college sports for both radio and television. Dorsey is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, where he also studied psychology. In his free time, he enjoys running and being outdoors. Dorsey is currently a freelance writer for the Associated Press, covering Chicago area sports teams.
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